Keith Jones on loss of his son on Deepwater Horizon

The Deepwater Horizon tragedy took place seven years ago today. Keith Jones is the father of Gordon Jones, one of the victims of the incident. Keith talks with us about the aftermath of the loss of his son and what has happened as a result of Deepwater Horizon.

John Cruden served with U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam, taking his law school aptitude test in Saigon and eventually becoming a government lawyer.

Earlier this month, he started a new job running the environment and natural resources division at the Justice Department. For Cruden, 68, the new role means coming home to a place where he worked as a career lawyer for about 20 years.

Cruden has been around long enough to have supervised the Exxon Valdeez spill case, a record-setter. That is, until the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Oil giant BP has suffered a legal setback in its effort to limit how much the company will pay under a 2012 settlement with thousands of individuals and businesses along the Gulf Coast. Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected BP's request that it review previous lower court decisions that favored plaintiffs.

Money is flowing now to Gulf Coast states to remedy damage from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and subsequent spill. All kinds of projects are underway, from building boat ramps to shoring-up marshland.

They're being paid for with a $1 billion down payment BP made toward its ultimate responsibility to make the Gulf Coast whole, a figure estimated to be up to $18 billion.

U.S. Representative Garret Graves, reprsenting the 6th Congressional District of Louisiana, phones in to chat about disaster response and Gov. John Bel Edwards' response regarding Congress and blame for the slow flow of federal disaster funds.

American University Historian Allan Lichtman is one of the only public figures who accurately predicted that President Donald Trump would win the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton would take the popular vote in 2016. Lichtman will comment on Trump's first 13 weeks in the White House.